Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Duress Code: Casual
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 4 | Aired on 01.15.2006
It's 10:42:27 as Beresch stands with his men, compulsively checking his watch. They're all pointing their guns down the hallway like the Rebels at the beginning of Star Wars. Except the Rebels didn't have to wait this long. Finally, Beresch loses patience and runs back over to Kiefer, sticking his eavesdropping earpiece back in place. He presses the muzzle of his gun to Kiefer's forehead and demands to know what's going on. "I don't know. You heard what I heard," Kiefer says, truthfully enough. Beresch dials Kiefer's phone and puts it to Kiefer's ear.
At CTU, Beresch/Kiefer's call comes through. Buchanan smoothly lies that there was a problem with the detonators, they're resetting them, and the good guys will be along at any minute. After the call ends, Kiefer tells Beresch, "They're in position." Now he looks sad, now that Beresch is too amped up to notice any deception anyway. They are worthy opponents for one another. Beresch runs back to his men, telling them to stay alert. Good advice, Beresch. Sucker.
Meanwhile, the two presidents are sitting down to sign the treaty. Watching the live coverage, The Man calls Beresch's cell phone. They exchange bitchy recriminations over the fact that it's come to this. "He's signing it," The Man says. "You have no choice. Kill them all." Beresch hangs up and looks over towards the hostages. Um, Beresch, isn't there something else you need to be taking care of first? And indeed, mere seconds later, a whole section of wall blows away in front of him and his men. They all fire their weapons repeatedly into the impenetrable dust cloud, stopping only when the smoke clears enough to make it apparent that nobody's there. While they're still confusedly processing this, armored agents bust through the wall behind them, guns blazing. Advantage: CTU. Actually, all of the fooferaw about where CTU was coming in has actually helped them, because they were able to add in that little fake-out non-entry and cause the bad guys to waste ammo, which wouldn't have happened with the original plan. I have this terrible feeling that we might somehow have Derek to thank for that.
Kiefer takes advantage of the chaos to shatter the nearest inside window with a well-placed kick. A terrorist falls before CTU bullets right next to him, but Kiefer doesn't even flinch; he's bent on using the glass he's just broken to saw away at his bonds. I don't think that would work with safety glass, but whatever. Having freed himself, he drops to a crouch, grabs the gun off the corpse next to him, and joins the battle, taking down two other terrorists his own self. He next draws a bead on Beresch, who, seeing that Kiefer's got the drop on him, places his own gun to his head to avoid being taken alive. Because CTU tortures information out of people, as everyone knows, and he can't have that. Kiefer closes one eye and shoots Beresch in the arm, sending the gun flying. No catastrophic head trauma for you! ["Unless Kiefer's dishing it out himself." -- Sars] As the battle continues (with the terrorists getting a severe spanking), Beresch crawls over to the body of his nearest fallen comrade. "No!" Kiefer bellows, but Beresch quickly activates the dead guy's explosive vest and gets himself blown into off-camera, network-friendly pieces. By this point, nobody's left standing but CTU agents. I mean, the hostages are down, but they're like that on purpose. Kiefer runs to Derek to help him up, asking if the kid's okay. Derek looks forward to going home and spending some quality time with his shiny new case of PTSD.
At CTU, Curtis's voice rings out over the speakerphone, announcing that the terminal has been secured without any more civilian casualties. "Good work, Curtis," McGill says heartily. Buchanan makes sure Novick heard it; Novick did, and I'm a little disappointed that Buchanan didn't leave his phone in the break room after all. Novick congratulates Buchanan and hangs up. President Logan is looking grave and depressed at his signing table at 10:45:22, until Novick comes up to whisper in his ear. Logan stands and happily announces that the hostage crisis is over. "The rescue operation that I authorized was successful." Gosh, thanks, Logan, for saving everyone's lives. Punk. Everyone applauds, and the Russian president smiles approvingly. Maybe he should be taking notes.